Through The Valley
by PunctuationPoint
Summary: Five years have passed since the Fireflies, and new threats loom on the horizon. Jackson is gone, and Joel has been captured by a mysterious group of bandits. Forced into a journey to find her friend, Ellie follows their trail tirelessly, though she soon realizes that she isn't the only one looking for these bandits.
1. On The Trail

_Inhale. Exhale._ A foul stench pervaded Ellie's senses, of piss mixed with the dank rot of the ancient house she'd found herself in. Her gaze focused on the source of the smell, a mutilated man sprawled out on the bedroom floor, with bloodied wounds from her machete all over his body. She suppressed the desire to gag, clasping the neck of a guitar in her left hand as she drew in another deep breath, feeling the worn strings with uneven fingernails. Her other hand shook violently, adrenaline that hadn't subsided yet continuing to take its toll on her, only further fueled by the sharp pains around her bloodied knuckles. She squeezed her hand shut, grimacing, before opening it again. The trembling subsided, if only by a little.

 _He hadn't been expecting her, surprise plastered across his face as she stood in the open doorway. He moved first, but wasn't fast enough. By the time his fingers clasped around a metal pipe, Ellie pounced on him, knocking them both to the ground with a heavy thud. Had she not landed on top of him, she doubted she would've been able to get the upper hand, but he was afraid and alone and already calling out for help. She silenced him before he could get the second word out, burying her machete into his forehead with two solid swings. By the time his friends called out for him, from somewhere deeper inside the house, she was already on her feet, pulling the blade out. She counted two voices, as expected. Approaching the hallway, it didn't take long for the second bandit to rush into the room._

Her gaze remained focused on the wooden instrument, ignoring the body sprawled out by her foot. She plucked the strings one by one, adjusting the tuning pegs accordingly as one string sung a sour note. With the issue corrected, she closed her eyes, images of days out on the porch with Joel and a similar guitar flashing through her mind. The rhythm came naturally; she'd practiced it far too many times to ever forget. Her voice was soft and shaky, yet she managed to maintain the pitch. How many times had she fucked this up? A hundred? Maybe two hundred times? It'd taken her a while to get used to playing the guitar and singing at the same time, like two independent halves with edges far too jagged to fit back together. Joel had insisted, though, so she'd figure it out, one way or another. Those countless hours had paid off, in the end.

 _The second bandit was a woman wearing dark clothes and combat boots. Shock only had seconds to sink in before Ellie pounced on her, knocking both of them against the wall just within the hallway. She put up a fight, though, forcing Ellie off before pinning her against the opposite wall, one hand clutched around her throat, while she struggled to reach for the knife on her belt with the other. The machete fell from Ellie's grip as she clawed at the woman's own neck, digging into her skin with her fingernails before finally managing to loosen the woman's grip. It took an instant to turn the tide, knocking away the woman's knife before kicking her away. She grabbed the machete desperately, rushing towards the woman before tackling her into the far wall of the bathroom. It took only one good swing to pierce the woman's right eye, burying the blade just enough for her to struggle pulling it out. The woman slumped to the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind on the tiled wall._

She clenched her left eye shut as blood trickled over her eyebrow from a gash on her forehead, only relaxing once the trail had slid past her eye. The chords she played echoed off the walls in a quiet, sombre tone. Under different circumstances, she'd probably be enjoying herself. The sense of calm; the rhythmic tune; the sound of birds chirping from outside the half-shattered window nearby. If there wasn't a body at her feet, she'd feel completely at peace, something she sorely missed, back when Jackson was still around. As she began to sing the chorus, though, she pushed those thoughts away, closing her eyes.

She could hear footsteps down the hall now, her voice draining of energy as she strummed one last chord, clenching her eyes shut further. His voice reached her ears like a reassuring whisper, and she opened her eyes, gazing towards the ground.

"What are you doin' kiddo?" Ellie didn't respond, shaking her head slightly. She was at a loss for words, that same adrenaline from earlier still surging through her veins. The fact that Joel was- "You really gonna go through with this?"

She averted her gaze to the far wall, setting the guitar down on the bed next to her. She knew what he meant, and knew exactly what she was doing to do. Nothing was going to stop her from finishing what she started, what she _had_ to see through to the end, no matter what.

She spoke in a low voice, angry and bitter. She couldn't help herself, not when it came to Joel. "I'm gonna find… and I'm gonna kill…" She turned towards the source of Joel's voice, taking in his form that seemed to not age a day since she first met him. That same old, grouchy man she'd gotten to eventually open up to her. "Every. Last. One of them."

 _Until I find you._

Once the thought had settled in her mind, she closed her eyes again, opening them to see that Joel was gone, replaced by another person entirely. The woman, barely a year younger than her, met her gaze with worried glances and a tightened jaw. She leaned against the door frame, adjusting her baseball cap.

"We'll find them," was all the woman said, her tone even and confident. For a moment, Ellie wasn't sure if she heard anything that she might've said, and found herself hoping that she _didn't_.

Yet she appreciated the sentiment in Clementine's words all the same.

A smile forced its way onto Ellie's face, mainly for the woman's benefit. She admired the confidence Clementine had in droves, and often found herself jealous of it. After everything she's been through, holding onto hope and carrying on have become increasingly difficult to accomplish. The trail ahead was long and unforgiving, with no promise that their friends would be alive on the other side, though Clementine would never let that stop her, and neither would she. For Joel's sake, Ellie would walk to the ends of the Earth. He'd probably do the same. After a pause, Ellie nodded, taking in a deep breath.

"Yeah. We will."


	2. Tracks

_Late Summer 2038, Early Afternoon_

"Tracks lead towards the coast."

Ellie lifted her gaze from the open map in her hands, looking towards Clementine as she spoke. She wiped away the layer of sweat forming on her forehead as she returned the map to her backpack, slipping it back on before slinging her bow back over her shoulder. Her attention focused on the tracks Clementine mentioned, minor imprints of deer hooves in between the patches of grass covering the forest floor. For a while, she'd found keeping the tracks in sight difficult, but Clem managed to find them again with relative ease. With the way her stomach growled, Ellie didn't care how difficult this hunt was; they'd find the animal one way or another.

The tracks weren't old, at least, which meant they were catching up. Sighing, Ellie rolled her shoulders, working out the kinks forming. "Good find," she replied, approaching the baseball-capped girl as she pushed herself to her feet. "Maybe we'll get dinner after all."

"Well, I wouldn't hold your breath yet," Clementine muttered, smiling slightly. Ellie returned it, making her way past the girl to follow the tracks.

For a moment, they walked in silence, only broken by the sing-song of birds and the buzzing of insects. Oregon was proving to be far more difficult to navigate than Ellie had anticipated. Humid, rainy, mountainous, yet equally beautiful. After a couple weeks of traveling through the state, though, she was starting to miss the flat, dry regions to the east. Didn't help that half of the state was pretty much an overgrown temperate jungle.

"We getting close?" Clementine's voice interrupted the silence, forcing Ellie to glance back towards her as they emerged from the forest and onto a long stretch of grassy road cutting through it. Ellie nodded, sighing.

"About a day away, I think. _If_ we manage to catch the deer." Their destination was an outpost that'd been marked on the bandits' map, those assholes from the house back near Eugene. She doubted it was their headquarters, but it was worth looking into to find any other clues about where Joel had been taken. The outpost was in Newport, and they were only just nearing Florence. _Starting to wish their truck had been salvageable._ She took in a deep breath, focusing herself on the task at hand. They'd deal with the bandits later. "Come on, let's pick up the pace."

The tracks continued on the other side of the road, heading deeper into the forest. Ellie found herself wondering where the buck was heading, or if it was simply wandering. As they followed the tracks, Ellie's mind focused on Joel, on how determined she was to find him, no matter how long it took. They just _had to_ keep following leads, and eventually one would lead right to him. Maybe then she could stop having these conversations with him when the younger girl wasn't around. Figments of her imagination, that's all they were, yet they managed to put her at ease, and his reassuring words – well, as reassuring as Joel could be – helped her keep moving forward. For weeks, he'd been the only company she kept, and his appearances became more seldom the longer she traveled with Clementine. In a way, the girl kept her from losing her mind, and that was something that she wouldn't ever be able to express to her.

 _The torrential downpour outside masked the stranger's footsteps. Ellie had taken shelter inside a ranch-style home, a sizable chunk of its roof missing from decades of decay, allowing said downpour to collect inside the home. Luckily, it seemed that the consistent rain in this region had been enough to rot out the floorboards to the point that they collapsed underneath the weight of the water, flooding the basement below instead of the home itself. This gave Ellie the chance to take a minute to rest until the storm blew over. However, it seemed that life had other plans._

 _By the time the front door opened, Ellie was already in motion to grab her pistol off of the coffee table next to where she'd laid down on the couch. The girl had been quicker, though._

" _Don't," the girl's voice cut through the pitter-patter of rain, forcing Ellie to stop in place, halfway to her weapon. She focused her attention on the girl, taking in every detail she could make out._

 _She was young, probably around her own age, and wore a baseball cap that was falling apart at the seams. Her dark brown hair was long and frizzy, likely from the humidity outside. She held her own pistol in Ellie's direction, rigid and pointed directly towards her head, but finger off the trigger. Ellie retracted her hand, leaving it in the air to show that she wasn't going to reach for another weapon. For a moment, the two remained perfectly still, as if analyzing the other survivor for any sign of hostility. Once she was certain that this girl wouldn't shoot her without provocation, Ellie slowly waved her raised hand._

" _Hi."_

 _No response._

" _You're not going to kill me, are you?"_

" _Depends," was the girl's answer, her head tilting to the side slightly. The weapon remained unmoved, and Ellie's gaze bounced between it and the girl's golden eyes in rapid succession._

" _On…?"_

 _There was a short pause, and the girl's grip on the pistol visibly tightened."Who you are, and who you're with."_

" _Ellie. No one. – Look... can we just… talk this out?"_

They've come a long way since then. Realizing they were both looking for the same assholes gave them a reason to work together, and Ellie didn't mind the company. Anything was better than being alone.

They pushed through the underbrush lining the edge of the forest, finding themselves alongside another road lined with crumbling stores. Muddy deer tracks cut between a hardware store and a cafe, heading deeper into the town. Ellie stopped at the edge of the forest, looking towards Clementine beside her. An incessant, feral moaning permeated the air, the telltale sign of infected nearby. This deer must have been desperate to get away from them.

And Ellie's hunger made her desperate enough to keep chasing it.

She held her bow tightly as she stepped into the road, Clementine following shortly behind with her knife. There was no sign of the infected on the street, at least, but they were close. They didn't seem agitated, which was a good sign. The deer made it through undetected. The tracks led them deeper into the town, towards a massive supermarket near the coast.

Ellie could hear her heartbeat in her ears, drumming in an increasingly erratic beat. They were reaching the end of an alleyway on the opposite side of the street from the supermarket, and the road beyond left them completely exposed. She chanced a peek into the street, hugging her body to the brick wall she hid behind.

 _There you are._

Her eyes narrowed as she counted the infected roaming the street, six runners and a clicker. Far too many to simply run across to the store. They'd have to kill them, and hope more wouldn't show up.

One look towards Clementine was all it took to get them on the same page. The baseball-capped girl clutched her knife tightly while Ellie grabbed an arrow from the quiver on her back, notching it before drawing the bowstring. She aimed towards the clicker, lining up her shot, then let the arrow loose. It flew through the air silently, piercing the shell around the clicker's head and killing it instantly.

There was no time to celebrate, though. There were still half a dozen runners surrounding the dead clicker, and the collapsing body had been enough to agitate them. Ellie notched another arrow, aiming for the nearest runner, then let it loose. The runner jerked its head violently, and the arrow whizzed by it, burying itself in the neck of another runner behind the first. It collapsed into a third runner, who stumbled to the ground. It wasn't long before their crazed gazes searched the street and locked onto their attackers.

 _Right. Couldn't have been easy._

She slipped her bow back over her shoulder, reaching for the machete hanging in its sheath on her belt loop. Side by side, her and Clementine raised their weapons, waiting for the first pair of infected to reach them. Ellie swung her machete downward, piercing the head of the first runner to reach them.

While she yanked her blade out, Clementine kicked the next on the knee, tripping it. She stabbed through the infected woman's forehead as Ellie sliced the stomach of another runner that had been getting too close, its guts spilling to the asphalt in crimson clumps. The next one came quickly, rushing Ellie before she could lift her machete, pinning her against the brick wall. It growled angrily, desperately trying to close the gap between himself and Ellie's neck.

"Get… _**off!**_ " She breathed angrily as she pushed back, trying to lift her blade enough to stab it into the runner's stomach and put some distance between her and it. She wouldn't get the chance, though, as Clementine's knife filled her vision, the other girl stabbing the runner through the neck before yanking its body backward. Its head collided with the ground with a heavy thud, grasping at its throat as blood oozed out before eventually ceasing altogether.

Ellie took in a deep breath, pushing herself away from the wall staggeringly. It appeared that Clementine had managed to take out the final runner before finishing off the one attacking her, leaving the street eerily silent. Ellie glanced towards the younger girl with gratitude, leaning her hand against the brick wall. "Next time, we avoid the town." Clementine nodded once, seemingly in agreement. "Come on," Ellie continued, sheathing her machete once more. "That fucker can't be far."

* * *

Night fell quickly, the moon and the low flames of their campfire being the only light illuminating the sandy shore around them. Ellie had busied herself with preparing the deer, expertly carving away slabs of meat they'd cook. She remembered being so hesitant to do this, back when Joel taught her everything he knew about hunting, but now it'd become second nature. Their only sources of food these days were rations they'd snag from bandits, or through hunting. Everything else spoiled long ago. Still, a twinge of guilt managed to find its way into her heart when she killed an animal, and she had to remind herself sometimes that this was all she could do to survive. Didn't make the feeling go away, but it helped a little.

She carried the slabs of meat to the fire, handing them over to Clementine to stick on the wooden spit they assembled out of branches. The girl speared them onto the spit, lowering it over the fire as Ellie strolled towards the water nearby, quickly washing her hands off. Wasn't exactly soap and water, but it'd get the blood off of her, at least.

The soft crunch of sand reached her ears, and she looked over her shoulder as Clementine knelt beside her, scrubbing blood off of her own hands before taking off her baseball cap, running a hand through her messy dark hair. They haven't talked much since they managed to corner the deer, keeping focused on skinning and preparing it instead, and now Ellie's mouth opened and closed by its own accord. Finally, as the other girl began to stand up, she found the words.

"Thanks for, y'know…"

Clementine quickly returned the hat back to her head, her right eyebrow raising slightly as she met Ellie's gaze. "… for watching your back?"

"Yeah…" Ellie forced a smile, realizing then that she didn't really know what to say after all. "…that." She had some semblance of misplaced pride still, in being able to take care of herself, being self-sufficient in the absence of Joel, yet… even now, she still needed saving. Somehow, that always seemed to follow her, like a trend. Usually, it was Joel who watched her back, and 'thanks' had long since gone by the wayside. They both knew how they felt, and the gratitude they harbored towards one another. With Clementine, though, she was still… _sort of_ a stranger.

She couldn't quite read Clementine's expression, the darkness beyond the edge of the beach obscuring her features slightly, although the moon accentuated her eyes. "Don't thank me. You'll have to return the favor, someday."

 _Right. I'll keep that in mind._

Clementine returned to the fire in quick steps, Ellie following shortly behind before sitting opposed to the girl, watching the flames crackle.

The feeling of sand beneath her felt almost alien; the only beach she'd been on before was that river back in Pittsburgh, all those years ago. This was something completely different though, almost serene and picturesque. The waves lapped the shore with quiet crashes, and the sand was soft and fine compared to the coarse sand and dirt of the river. She pictured being here before the infection, dozens of little fires like their own across the beach, and people swimming in the ocean and having fun and – well, doing everything they _couldn't_. She'd kill to swim, to take a moment to just enjoy herself while they were here, but the situation demanded otherwise. Being so close to Florence, the infected weren't too far away, which was why they've been so quiet over the past thirty minutes they'd spent there. A permanent reminder that the world would never be the way it was, and how useless Ellie had turned out to be.

She pushed those thoughts away, focusing them instead on Joel. She couldn't help thinking about the fact that he'd lied to her about the Fireflies, something that she had hated him for, for longer than she would care to admit. It had been a divide between them that she couldn't really seem to fix, even during the last time they were together, yet despite that, she stuck by him. Joel wasn't family, but he was the closest thing she had to one, and the last thing she wanted was to lose that because of what he did.

She found herself touching the bite on her arm with a finger, tracing over the mostly healed-over wound. The tattoo she had masked it well, and you'd only know it was there if you had felt it, but she could feel Clementine's eyes on her, that skeptical, inquisitive side that the baseball-capped girl had apparent on her face. It wasn't long after they met that she told the girl about the bite, more out of courtesy than anything else. The immunity meant nothing when it couldn't be used to save humanity, and her view of the wound changed with the years that passed by. Clementine, unsurprisingly, had been freaked out by it, and Ellie found herself secretly glad that the girl had stuck around afterward. She wasn't ready to be alone. Not again.

"How did it happen?" Clementine's voice pulled her gaze away from the bite and towards her. For a moment, Ellie bit her lip, staring down at the wound with renewed focus. Thinking about those days with Riley wasn't something she allowed herself to do these days, the memories being far too painful. She still remembered every detail of that night, and would likely never forget them.

She opened her mouth to speak, stopping as the first syllable escaped her, before trying again. Her hand was shaking slightly, and she clutched her forearm with her other hand to stop it. "It just… happened, I guess. I wasn't where I should've been. Got cornered." _That's not really how it went down, and you know it._ "It was… dumb." Clementine's gaze felt omnipresent as Ellie forced herself to look towards the meat cooking on the spit. Anything not to feel like she was back there, in that mall, with Riley dying by her side. It wasn't really Clementine's fault though, so Ellie tried to put on a half-smile, enough to hopefully avoid any more questions from the girl. She received a slight smile back, although hesitantly, and Ellie tried to change the subject. "Alright. My turn. I've told you about Joel, but who'd they take from you?"

Clementine didn't answer immediately, rotating the spit to cook the other side of the venison. Whoever they were, they clearly meant a lot to her, her lips twisted into a frown and her golden eyes flickered in the firelight. "His name is Luke," she responded, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "He's the only friend I have left."

 _Ouch._ She understood that feeling of loneliness more than she was willing to admit, images of Riley, Joel, and even Dina crossing her mind and disappearing just as quickly. She probably had her own nightmares about the friends she lost, and Ellie wasn't sure if she wanted to delve too much deeper into that graveyard. Tilting her head slightly, resting her elbows against her knees and her head against the palm of her hand, she asked another question. "What's he like?"

The frown disappeared on her face, replaced by a smile. "He's an idiot," she said, a genuine chuckle escaping her. "The day I met him, he was saving me from this pack of infected. Carried me all the way back to a cabin his group was staying in… then he dropped me when he saw this," she twisted her arm around to show the scar Ellie's noticed before. She always thought it must've been a dog bite, so she never really brought it up with the girl. "I told him that a dog bit me, and then he says that he doesn't know a dog bite from an infected bite from a… mosquito bite." The smile widened a bit, genuine excitement visible in her eyes, before she took in a deep breath, calming herself. "Well, uhm… you know – he's… the one that's stuck around."

"How long have you known him?" Ellie found herself asking, more out of curiosity than anything else. She knew so little of the girl's past, and this was probably the most she's gotten out of her since they met. It was clear as day that she'd lost a _lot_ of people she cared about in the past, and probably feared losing another, and thus… her determination to find him.

"Seven years," Clementine replied quickly, lifting her gaze from the flames. There was a bittersweetness to her smile, one where Ellie could tell there's an underlying layer of survivor's guilt beneath the surface.

Ellie simply nodded, showing that she understood. Sighing, she shifted in her spot, taking a handful of sand and letting it pour slowly from her palm. "I met Joel five years ago, so… yeah. I know how you feel."

There was a brief moment of silence as Clementine spun the slabs of meat again, the originally bloody-pink substance beginning to turn a more appealing brown. Ellie finished pouring the sand out of her hand, fidgeting uncomfortably. She was starting to wish that she'd brought the guitar with her, even if using it would've been a risk so close to town. The quiet atmosphere surrounding them was starting to feel almost suffocating. She briefly entertained the thought of walking the beach while their dinner cooked, but Clementine's voice stopped her short.

"How'd _you two_ meet?"

Ellie settled her gaze on her baseball-capped friend, realizing then that she probably _did_ owe the girl some answers after grilling her about Luke. "Well, uh…" she started, sighing. "It's a bit more complicated. He was hired to smuggle me out of Boston, and hand me off to the Fireflies to get a cure." _Then he killed them all and lied to me about it._ "By the time we reached those guys… well, a lot of things happened and the cure thing didn't really work out. I guess we've just sorta stuck together ever since."

Clementine slowly nodded, appearing lost in thought. Silently, she observed the venison, pulling the branch off of the makeshift spit. She held them away from the fire for a moment, waiting for them to cool, before ripping one of the slabs off and handing it to Ellie, who leaned closer to the fire to take it. Clementine took the first bite, holding the branch while eating off the side. Ellie followed suit, tearing away a piece of the meat. It was tough, unseasoned, but edible. She didn't remember the last time she had something that was _tasty_ anyway.

The flames flickered, leaving Ellie entranced as she ate. Her stomach growled furiously, only satiated once she'd finished gnawing away at the venison. Her gaze shifted towards the water nearby, readying herself for the journey back over to wash off her hands _again_. The moon reflected off of the water in a soft glow, calm waves crashing against the beach in a rhythmic fashion. She hadn't seen anything so… _serene_ , mesmerizing to its highest degree. She found herself reconsidering the swim, weighing the consequences of it in her mind before her lips twitched upward.

 _Fuck it. Why not?_

She focused on Clementine as the baseball-capped girl finished chewing on the final piece of her own venison, the words tumbling out of Ellie's mouth in a casual manner. "So… how about a swim?"

That caught Clementine off guard, it seemed, the girl's eyes darting towards Ellie with eyebrows raised in shock. Ellie didn't blame her, the very idea felt preposterous, but when would they ever get a chance like this again? She was twenty years old, and this was the first _real_ beach she'd found herself on. There was no telling when the next would come. She silently thanked Joel for teaching her how to swim, years ago. What used to hinder her was now almost liberating, and she found herself smiling at the idea of doing it again.

"…Are you serious?" The words that left Clementine's mouth were high-pitched and breathless, something Ellie attributed to shock, or maybe disbelief. Ellie shrugged her shoulders in response, making to stand up next to the fire.

"Why not? When's the last time you've gone swimming at a _beach_?"

The girl didn't answer, opening her mouth and closing it in rapid movements. Ellie didn't bother herself with the reaction, instead walking towards the water quickly, kicking off her shoes and socks near the edge of the water and taking a single step forward. Her toes buried themselves in the wet sand, water rushing past her and then receding back again in a calming fashion.

She turned back towards the girl, who remained at the fire, looking back at her incredulously. She wasn't going to force the girl to join her, though she silently hoped she would. They both needed to take a moment to relax. It'd be the last time they'd get to do so until after they reached the outpost in Newport, so they might as well capitalize on that. She slipped off her button-up shirt, tossing it over towards her shoes on the beach, then waded into the water, stopping as it reached her undershirt.

The feeling of the waves made everything feel in motion even as she stood in place, struggling to remain rooted to the spot as the waves pushed her back towards shore. Her smile widened, and she called out towards the girl. "So this is what the ocean feels like…!"

"You're fucking crazy!" was Clementine's response, eliciting a laugh from Ellie. Of course it was crazy, but equally _awesome_. "Someone's gonna hear you!"

"You're the one yelling instead of swimming," Ellie smiled, trudging further out until the water reached her neck, laying herself out to float on the surface. She could hear the other girl let out a frustrated sigh, grumbling something she couldn't quite make out at this distance.

As Ellie floated, her ears were filled with the calming sound of water, her eyes focused on the starry sky. She still wasn't quite used to it, just _how many_ stars were out there. In the quarantine zone, flood lights made it difficult to see anything beyond the brightest stars. Here, the entire universe seemed to greet them, places she'd never see beyond their own fucked up world. _If_ there was life out there, she almost envied them. They probably had a life like _before_ , maybe even… cool spaceships and stuff. All she had was what she could carry with her, and a handful of people to care about.

She glanced towards Clementine out of the corner of her eye to see the girl begrudgingly standing up, shrugging off her leather jacket and laying it neatly near the fire, then slipping off her shoes and socks and laying her baseball cap atop the pile. She slowly approached the edge of the beach, cautiously taking a single step into the receding water. Ellie swam towards the shore, standing at the edge of where her feet could still touch the sand beneath her. The other girl took her time to head deeper into the water, enough to make Ellie roll her eyes.

"The water's not gonna kill you, you know," she called out towards the girl as she closed the distance between them. For a moment, Clementine sent her a murderous glare, which Ellie responded to with a sheepish smile.

"This is so _stupid_ ," Clementine muttered, likely to herself. Finally, she made it to the furthest point her smaller stature would let her, and didn't go any further. Ellie floated next to her, her gaze returning to the stars, before focusing on the dark horizon, far beyond the faint firelight from the beach. The calming waves became the only sound Ellie could hear, her mind wandering. Thoughts about Joel and her old home in Jackson, of their journey to get there, and her journey to get _here_. Throughout these past several years, she could count how many times she got to relax on one hand. Despite Clementine's hesitance, this was definitely one of those moments. She'd enjoy it for as long as she could. There was no telling what tomorrow would bring.

She found herself glancing towards Clementine as the girl combed her hair out of her face with her fingers. She looked completely different without the hat glued to her head, like an entirely different person. It must've meant a lot to her, probably a gift from her parents. Must've been a long time ago, too, based on how much it'd deteriorated.

"So, uh…" Ellie spoke in a soft tone, deciding to keep her voice down on the off-chance something out there would hear them. Clementine was right about one thing, anyway. "Do you ever think about… what it's like, somewhere else? Across the ocean? Like… what if this thing didn't reach that far, and it's better there. No shitty quarantine zones, no infected..."

Clementine glanced towards her out of the corner of her eye, then towards the horizon again. "There's no _better_ , Ellie. Just… more of the same."

 _Right. Forgot who I was talking to._

"Yeah? What's that?" Ellie tried to smile, but ultimately failed. She found herself thinking that way too, more often than she was willing to admit. So far, her experiences backed up what the baseball-capped girl was saying, as much as she didn't want to believe it.

' _No matter what, you keep… finding something to fight for.'_ Joel's words had a tendency to get stuck with her, and that one… that one always came back.

Clementine didn't immediately answer, sinking her head beneath the surface of the water before resurfacing, running her hands through her unkempt hair. "You've seen what it's like," she spoke evenly, finally meeting Ellie's gaze. "How could it be better anywhere else...?"

Ellie averted her gaze, taking a moment to take her hair out of the ponytail then washing it. In some ways, Clementine was wrong. There were places out there that were _better_. Jackson had been one of them, once. Before it fell apart, anyway. After she found Joel, that search for a new home would continue, so she had to keep faith that something would be out there for them. _Anything._

She took in a deep breath, mulling over things she could say. "Maybe. But…" She trailed off, shrugging her shoulders. "I got to pet a giraffe once. That's plenty _better_ , right?"

Clementine's eyes widened slightly, her eyes darting towards Ellie in a look of disbelief. "You… got to _pet_ a giraffe?"

"Years ago." She replied, her eyes falling to the dark water surrounding them.

She remembered that moment fondly, a moment of joy that'd come and gone in an instant. She felt so lost back then, after the journey Joel and her had endured to get there.

After David.

How many nights she spent having nightmares of that moment, burying them deep inside to let them fester. She only told Joel about the _good_ ones, the ones that she wished she'd have more often, and maybe that had been a mistake. She didn't know how to cope with what had happened, and the things she'd done. Sometimes, she _still_ had trouble with them. The giraffes, though, that was a memory that shined above the rest of those terrible fucking months.

"Joel and I… we were almost to the Fireflies, near Salt Lake City. I saw one through a window and sorta just… chased after it. It was so _huge_. Way bigger than I imagined." She took in a deep breath, the smile that crept onto her face slowly relaxing, and her voice softened. "Probably the coolest thing I got to do."

"Don't think I've done anything that compares to that…" Clementine seemed genuinely disappointed, and Ellie twisted her body to face towards the shore, patting Clementine on the shoulder with a half-smile.

"There's always tomorrow."

That got the girl to smile. The shit they had to deal with right now was more than enough to justify Clementine's cynicism, but they had to hope for the best. Even after what happened with David, and the Fireflies, she had to keep striving for _something_ , even if was as simple as getting to pet a giraffe, or taking in the awesome sight of a city skyline, untouched by FEDRA for decades. They needed hope to keep moving forward, and Ellie would give that to Clementine. Somehow.

She returned her focus to Clementine, tilting her head towards the shore in a quick gesture. "Come on. Water's getting cold."

Clementine didn't argue, and the two quickly waded back to shore. Ellie's clothes felt like they weighed ten times more than they had beforehand, and she left a trail of water behind her as she approached the fire in sluggish movements. Clementine lagged behind, hugging herself to stay warm as she stood by the fire, before rummaging through her backpack near her jacket and shoes. She pulled out several articles of clothing, before glancing towards Ellie. Ellie answered for her before the words could leave her.

"Go ahead. I'll watch our stuff."

Clementine smiled gratefully, before nodding. "Thanks."

She took her spare clothes and strolled down the beach, towards a group of homes nestled between the trees on the outskirts of the sand, and a two-lane road. Ellie slowly sat down next to the fire, slipping her shoes and socks back on before crossing her legs in a criss-cross fashion. She held out her hands towards the fire, the warmth of the flames welcoming on her skin. She had a feeling that her hair was a mess right now, too, but she wouldn't worry about that. She'd have a chance to fix it back up into a ponytail once it was her turn to change. She took in another deep breath, closing her eyes and listening to the crackle of the fire. It remained just as soothing as it always seemed to be, and she wished that she could listen to it forever.

"It's nice to see you two talking."

Ellie opened her eyes instantly, focusing on what had been an empty spot across the fire from her. Instead, Joel filled it, looking down at the same guitar Ellie had found earlier, and he twisted the tuning knobs. His eyes focused on her after he seemed satisfied with his work.

Ellie bit her lip, holding back a dozen things she wanted to say to him. These moments, while they weren't rare, were often short. If Joel wanted to talk about Clem, then maybe she'd just… indulge him. "Yeah, well…" she trailed off, grabbing a handful of her hair and squeezing the water that clung to her out of it. "I'm _trying_."

"Don't blame yourself," Joel replied evenly, plucking at a couple strings as he spoke. "It was… a rocky start. Most friendships _are_ these days." He let out a chuckle, shaking his head. "I ever tell you how Tess an' I met?"

"About a dozen times," Ellie deadpanned, struggling to not smile.

"Yeah, well, she damn near blew my head off. Not the best first impression." Joel finished, returning Ellie's hesitant smile. "Point is, I'm just – glad you're makin' friends. You need someone out there watchin' your back."

"I know," Ellie sighed, averting her gaze and crossing her arms over her chest. "We've talked about this."

"Then you know what I'm gonna say," was Joel's response, to which Ellie nodded begrudgingly. He scratched at his beard, glancing towards the beach house. "Well… she's better than the last one, at least."

That comment caught her off guard. She tried to not think about Dina, as much as she could. About how things ended up, and how much she _hated_ not knowing if she was still alive. She opened her mouth to retort, only to stop midway, her hand instinctively touching the bracelet she wore on her right arm. She mentally cursed him, scratching at her skin beneath the bracelet. "This isn't like that. You-"

"Don't go lyin' to yourself," Joel stated, interrupting her. Ellie let out a huff, shoulders slouching. "Look, I'm just sayin'. Last one was a rabble-rouser. When she wasn't sneakin' out, she was gettin' you into trouble. You know how many times I had to get Tommy to go easy on you?"

"A lot," Ellie heard the deadpan return to her voice, an irritation that she'd often adopted with him over the past several years. A lot of the time, she didn't _mean_ to do it. Her resentment towards Joel and his lie about the Fireflies was probably the primary culprit there, though she often masked it under the gratitude and love she still held for him. Despite everything, he was the father she never had, and dealing with his misgivings about her last _relationship_ had led to dozens of arguments before Jackson fell. Joel didn't seem to care about her retort, though, continuing on as if she said nothing.

"Way I see it, she might be a good influence on you. Way things were before…"

She remembered the blood vividly, and the terrified faces even more. Tearing every inch of the country apart to look for Joel, and killing any bandit she found once she got the information she needed out of them. Most didn't have anything, and she killed them in vain. She'd lost herself, just like before.

That was around the time she last saw her girlfriend. The world beyond wasn't something Dina was prepared for, despite how much she endured every minute of it. By the end, she wasn't sure if she looked at Ellie the same way, though now she wished that she could see her again. It didn't matter if the reception she'd receive would be warm or fearful.

Those conflicts rarely happened anymore, besides a few times recently. The benefit and curse of traveling with Clementine. After the last time, she could feel the girl's distaste for the killing, not that Ellie really blamed her. It was one of the few things her and Dina had in common.

" _Hold still."_

 _Ellie flinched as Clementine stabbed the needle into her temple, and out on the other side of the wound. She always hated these, and how frequent they've become. Joel used to take care of them for her, on the rare occasion she'd need stitching, but his work wasn't nearly as refined as Clementine's. She asked her about it once, and her answer had simply been practice and learning techniques from survivors she traveled with. Still, it was impressive, though still painful. She cursed as Clementine went for another pass, twitching her lips in anguish._

" _Come on. Don't be a baby," was Clementine's response, to which Ellie let out a scoff, grumbling under her breath._

" _Just wait until it's your turn."_

" _Well, if you would've waited for me, maybe I wouldn't have to do this." Clementine responded dryly, finishing the third pass. Ellie sighed, rolling her eyes. She had a point, but the situation demanded things play out the way they did. She needed to get information from these guys before they managed to slip from their grasp again, and that meant getting her hands dirty, something Clementine seemed to have a distaste for. How she made it this long without… losing herself, Ellie probably would never know, but she envied her for it._

 _Like it or not, though, it held them back._

" _Did you get anything from them, at least?" Clementine asked from above her as she went for the final pass with the needle and thread. Ellie patted the bed next to her, finding the object she'd found._

" _Just a map," she said, holding out the paper to Clementine as she finally finished. She put the needle and the remaining thread back into a first-aid kit she kept with her, then took the map from Ellie. She unfolded it, her eyes searching the map for a moment, eyebrows raising._

" _Are these outposts?"_

" _I think so," Ellie replied, standing up. She pointed towards an outpost marked near the Oregon coast. "This one's the closest. Might be worth taking a look."_

 _Clementine's lips twisted slightly, nose scrunching as she examined the map. Perhaps she knew what Ellie meant, but didn't say anything about it. Instead, she pointed towards a few outposts marked further north, near Washington. "What about these?"_

" _One at a time," Ellie replied, pointing towards the outpost from earlier. "We check there, and see what we can find. Then we move on to the next."_

 _Clementine slowly nodded, her eyes focusing on the map for a few more seconds before folding it back up. "Okay. Let's get going, then."_

"… just take care of each other. Alright?" Joel's words pulled her from the memory. That same worried expression he adopted frequently was plastered on his face, and Ellie slowly nodded. She opened her mouth to speak, blinking, but he was already gone.

She clenched her fists, teeth gnashing. "God damn it…!"

She had so much more she wanted to say to him, to tell him that she still hadn't given up trying to find him, but he had a tendency to leave before she had a chance to. Letting out an aggravated grunt, she wrapped her arms around her knees, laying her head in between her arms. Why was she getting emotional about this? Joel wasn't here, he never had been. He was never there all those times she talked to him on this journey, yet she treated him like he was real. Until she found him again, he'd never be real. Her words didn't matter.

The snap of a twig forced her head to jerk up, half-expecting Clem to be standing there. Instead, a younger girl met her gaze, a shocked look of her own painted across her face. She appeared as if she was expecting someone else, and remained rooted to the spot as Ellie examined her. She appeared to be about fifteen or sixteen, a young Asian girl with her hair tied into a bun. She was frazzled, what hair that wasn't tied back going in every direction. She'd been running, recently. She didn't seem to have a weapon on her, no obvious signs of a gun or a knife in her pocket.

Good, that meant Ellie had the advantage here.

The girl took a step back, her eyes gleaming with a terror that screamed that she was about to start running. Ellie held out a hand, hissing in a quiet tone. "Wait!"

The girl froze, and Ellie managed to get a closer look at her. The first thing that caught her attention was a scar on her cheek. It appeared deliberate, unlike the slashing of a knife in a fight. Whoever had done this had _intention_ , and she could swear that she'd seen it before somewhere, but couldn't quite make the connection. Her frightened eyes focused on Ellie.

Ellie tried to smile, silently hoping to calm her down, yet the girl's demeanor remained the same, like a frightened rabbit stuck between a predator and a wall. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Just… well…" she waved her hand slightly, pursing her lips. "Hi?"

The girl didn't respond, her head swiveling back towards the forest in a motion that Ellie could swear would snap the girl's neck. She returned her gaze to Ellie just as quickly, her voice hushed. "I - I - I got to go. They're coming…!"

 _Wait, what._

The girl was already in motion, but Ellie called out for her all the same. "Wait! Who's coming?!" She received no response, instead having to watch as the girl disappeared into the forest. Ellie let out a breath, her mind running at a million miles per second. She reached for her gun from inside her backpack, only to hear the sound of the girl yelping in the forest. Ellie held the weapon towards the tree line, standing up in panicked movement.

They emerged like an army, at least a dozen of them. She bounced her weapon between each of them, taking in their appearances. They were wearing dark robes, hoods obscuring their faces from sight. Two of them were carrying the girl by her arms, dropping her to the sand. Their own weapons were trained on her, a woman taking a step towards her from the middle of the group.

Ellie kept her weapon raised, finger on the trigger. She was outgunned, that much was clear, but she wasn't about to give up either. Clem was still out there, so she had a chance to turn the tide. Hopefully.

The woman lowered her hood, glaring towards Ellie with disdain. She turned back towards the girl on the ground, her voice harsh and angry. "Where's the other apostate?"

The girl didn't respond, and the woman exchanged glances with the two assholes flanking the teenager. The left one moved towards her, punching the girl across her cheek. She screamed out in pain, her face colliding with the sand violently.

"Doesn't matter. We'll find him." The woman turned back towards Ellie, who narrowed her eyes. "Disarm her." The words were directed to the men surrounding her, and Ellie clenched her teeth. Three men approached her quickly, and Ellie's breathing intensified. She aimed towards the nearest one, firing a shot straight into the man's kneecap.

He fell to the ground, screaming in agony. She wouldn't get another chance to fire, though, the other two rushing her. Her own cheek felt their fury, a punch hard enough to knock the wind out of her. By the time she regained her breath, they'd already snatched her pistol away.

Her vision was filled with the sight of the man she had shot, screaming and cursing, before the woman approached her, gesturing to the others. Ellie felt herself being jerked up and onto her feet. She fought back, biting one of their arms desperately, but ultimately failed to loosen their grip. The familiar feeling of rope around her hands sent adrenaline surging through her system, though she wouldn't be able to use it. A meaty hand grabbed her by the back of her neck, pushing her forward and away from the fire. She cursed and kicked to no avail as she was dragged towards the other girl.

"Take them back to camp." The woman was barking orders now, her gaze falling to the shot bandit, her expression darkening. "Leave him. You two, come with me." That same fear that she saw in the girl's eyes earlier had now found a place in her own. They were going to find Clementine. Her breath hitched, and she tried to get off her knees, to rush the nearest bandit and try her hand at getting away, but she was cut short, something hard slamming into the back of her head, and the sand filled her vision, before she lost consciousness completely.


	3. Embarcadero

_Early Fall, 2037, Afternoon – About a year ago_

"How'd ya wan' it cut again?"

Clementine's gaze snapped towards Luke with narrowed eyes. He returned the gaze with a sheepish smile, as if he'd been trying to tell a joke. Of course, it wasn't a funny one. They usually weren't, though she tried to entertain him from time to time. This time wasn't going to be one of them.

"I already told you, Luke."

"Short. Yeah, yeah. I know. Jus' wonderin' if you want the pigtails again or not." While he spoke, he immediately went to work, delicately grabbing onto a bushel of her hair before snipping it. She tried to keep her head still despite the gentle tugging, frowning. "Y'know, might be easier to manage if ya cut it shorter. For the summer."

"And look like you? No thanks."

That elicited a scoff from Luke, and she could hear him lightly scratching as his shortened hair as another snip of the clippers followed suit. "'less you plan on dyin' your hair, I think you're good. But fine, pigtails it is."

Silence filled the air as he continued to work, Clementine's mind drifting off. Her eyes scanned the large cement walls surrounding her, though they seemed to be leaning more towards green than gray these days, each wall covered in patchy clumps of vines and moss. The pipes that had once been used to move water around now laid dormant, rusted and falling apart. She was willing to bet that if she touched one, she'd poke a hole right through it. Hell, she'd probably get tetanus just by looking at them.

As Luke hummed a tune behind her, a small habit that he'd picked up when trying to concentrate, Clementine broke the silence, her tone one of curiosity. "Do you think it'll be better there?"

"What? At Jackson?" Luke's voice indicated that he was only half-listening to what she was saying, his words followed by the metallic scratching of the scissors.

"Yeah. The last place wasn't…" She trailed off, uncomfortable memories of cramped apartments and violent riots flooding back in droves. They'd only been in the quarantine zone for a month before it fell apart.

When they returned to the road, the very idea of searching for another community made her nervous. What made the Jackson so different from a quarantine zone? Everywhere they've gone, nothing but death found them. First, it was Howe's, a place they'd hardly wanted to go to, but ended up in nonetheless, where the infected took them out without difficulty. Then, Wellington… one of the few places they'd gone to that wasn't run by FEDRA, and bandits made sure it wouldn't last. Cleveland was the last, the riots leading to an all-out war in the streets. They'd barely made it out alive. The kinds of population in a QZ, and the amount of infected that followed it, was far too great to be sustainable. Yet, rumors had spread about this community in the west, a place deep in the countryside. There was little to go on besides hearsay, and it reminded her of those days when the Fireflies were the big thing to talk about. What happened to them in recent years was beyond her, but if they were smart, they were lying low somewhere.

Nevertheless, Clementine wouldn't put much stock on rumors and speculation. They've gotten them in far more perilous situations before, and she wasn't ready to lose her last close friend if Jackson turned out to be a bust.

"It'll be better," Luke's voice cut through the fog in her mind, almost as if he'd been listening to her thoughts. "Jane believed 'n it, and she ain't one for believing jus' anything."

And she didn't make it.

That morbid thought floated in her head for longer than she might've liked, and her frown deepened. She remembered the woman's panicked brown eyes as infected sunk their teeth into her neck, how her lips contorted into one of horror and agony. Her usual orange jacket had been covered in her own blood. After Kenny, her and Luke had been the last people that survived their journey away from Howe's, and her face would be forever engraved in her head, with a bullet hole in the middle of her forehead, where Clementine had ended her suffering. For years, she looked up to Jane, and that memory was all that she had left of her.

Luke wouldn't talk about it, but she knew every time he brought her up, that same moment replayed in his head too. It was the only thing they'd remember of that stormy night, beyond flashes of adrenaline-fueled sprinting through the streets of Omaha.

Questions lingered on the tip of her tongue, yet she kept them to herself. Whatever awaited them in Jackson, they hardly mattered right now.

Her eyes flicked towards an object Luke held in front of her, a small mirror they carried around in his pack, and Luke's words echoed in her left ear. "So… whatcha think?"

It was short. Far shorter than Clementine wanted. She wasn't sure if she could get what was left into her usual pigtails even if she wanted to. She held back words that she'd probably regret, stretching her lips into a tenuous smile.

"It looks… good," she said finally, though a quiet breath from Luke made her glance towards him. They both knew she was lying.

"Yeah, well… next time we find a SuperCuts, I'll let 'em deal with your hair instead."

Clementine let out a slight chuckle, shaking her head. "Probably for the best."

She watched as Luke returned the mirror and the scissors to the backpack, slipping them back over his shoulders. Sighing, he ran a hand over his face, clenching his eyes shut for a moment before opening them. "C'mon. Time to check the rest of the place out."

* * *

 _Late Summer, 2038, Evening – Present Day_

Clementine's nose scrunched slightly as she stared into the mirror with a mixture of disgust and disappointment. Her hair was a wild mess, far beyond what she had allowed it to grow to since those days with Lee, so very long ago. Strands were clumped together with dried mud acting like glue, and the ends were frizzy and dead. The humidity hardly helped.

She leaned her hands against the pearl-white sink, looking herself over as the faint light of a candle she'd found burned in front of her. The rest of the dingy bathroom glowed with the candlelight, though the hallway beyond remained eerily dark. The crashing of waves still managed to reach her ears this deep into the beach house, the rhythm of the crashes calming, enough to relax her as she took a step away from the mirror.

Her backpack sat on the toilet nearby, and she unzipped it quietly, reaching inside for a pair of scissors she kept at the bottom of the pack. Moving the candle to a shelf sitting to the immediate right of the mirror, she ran her fingers through her hair, grabbing a handful before holding the scissors where she wanted to cut them. A tiny _snip_ later, she dropped the strands into the sink, continuing in silence.

When was the last time she cut her hair? It felt like ages ago, now. She vaguely remembered an old water treatment plant in the mountains, near Colorado, when Luke came up with the brilliant idea of cutting it for her. It was the last time she'd let him touch her hair. In hindsight, she almost wished he was here to do it for her.

And just as quickly as the sentiment had popped into her mind, it was gone. She'd cut her own hair if she had to, just like she told Lee she would.

Once she was finished, she examined herself in the mirror, slowly nodding. It was still as frizzy as ever but stopped just at her shoulders. It was definitely better than _last time_. She returned the scissors to her backpack, reaching deeper inside for a small Ziploc bag of hair ties and pulling one out. Depositing the bag, she grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling it all neatly into a single tail extending out to her right side before slipping the hair tie over it, keeping it in place.

Finally, she put her leather jacket back on, feeling far more comfortable with it on during the cool night. Her wet clothes hung over the shower curtain rod, where she'd return to them in the morning. With everything back in her backpack, she slipped it back onto her shoulders before taking in a deep breath.

The breath stopped mid-way as the crack of a bullet pierced the air, loud enough to echo through the beach house. Her actions were instinct at this point, drilled into her head from years of experience. She quickly made her way back to the living room, pistol already clutched in her right hand, and peered through the curtained windows overlooking the beachfront.

The fire continued to burn brightly, nestled between the forest and a large rock that obscured most of the fire from view of the city. The deer remained in its spot next to the fire, and a human figure was sprawled out on the ground, clutching its leg. Through the glass, she could hear their muffled screams of pain.

And it definitely wasn't Ellie.

Questions burned in her head, and she clutched the pistol tighter. She headed for the front door, taking the steps down from the porch two at a time as she approached the campfire, weapon held aloft and towards the injured stranger.

Better safe than sorry. After all, he'd been shot for a reason, and she had a feeling Ellie was behind it.

He only seemed to notice her once she was close enough to the fire to feel its warmth. He was young, maybe in his mid-twenties, his brown hair shaved into a buzzcut. His green eyes were fierce, determined, and definitely not happy to see her. A scar lined his cheek, cut from his lip to his ear, and it didn't take long for Clementine to make the connection in her head. He was from the same group they ran into previously; the ones Ellie killed and obtained the map from.

It was starting to make sense why Ellie might've shot him, though Clementine kept her finger off the trigger nonetheless. Bandit or not, he was still a human being.

He remained silent, save for the pained gasp that escaped him occasionally. Clementine observed him just as silently, as if trying to analyze him. Eventually, this seemed to irritate him, his eyes narrowing.

"The fuck do you want, kid?" His voice was high-pitched, only amplified by the pain he was enduring. Clementine didn't move, though her head lowered slightly in response, staring him down.

"My friend. She was out here. Where'd she go?"

The bandit let out a harsh chuckle, rolling his eyes before scratching at his patchy beard. He sighed, eventually gasping as he clutched his fingers around her knee tighter. "She's gone." He met her gaze, smiling slightly, which only deepened Clem's frown. "Bitch shot me. She's getting what she deserves."

 _So she didn't leave by herself._ Her nose wrinkled, and she took a step closer to the fire, circling around the bandit. "I'm guessing you had friends. They ditch you?"

Anger flashed across his face, and he jerked to stand up and attack her, though the sudden movement had seemed to be enough to shoot a wave of pain through him, and he fell back onto the sand. He let out another sigh, his voice low. "If you can't pull your own weight…" he trailed off, and Clementine nodded slightly, understanding where he was coming from. It wasn't all that uncommon of a practice with these groups, to leave people behind if they're too injured or sick to move on their own. She almost felt bad for him, in a way. Almost.

"Where are they taking her?" She asked and was met with only silence. His eyes narrowed, lips curling into a snarl, but no words escaped him. She lowered the gun, eyebrows raising slightly. "They left you to die," she reminded him. "Are you really going to protect them?"

"How about you fuck off?" His harsh words hardly phased her, and she dropped the pistol to her side after a moment. Clearly, she wasn't going to get anything from him. Not yet, anyway.

She could feel his glare on her as she stepped away, towards Ellie's backpack nearby, left where the girl had left it earlier, before the swim. She kneeled next to it, zipping it open.

The bandit shuffled in his spot, the sound of sand moving alerting her to the movement. His voice was louder, harsher. "The fuck you doin'?"

She finally found what she was looking for as she dug into the backpack, pulling out a fairly short amount of rope. She glanced towards him, lips tucked into a frown, her tone even as she replied to his question. "Making sure you don't do anything dumb."

He put weight on his uninjured leg as if to stand, and only stopped as Clementine lifted the pistol again, pointing it towards him. He settled back into the sand, face contorting with anger, but didn't make to stand again. Clementine noted that, standing up.

He was afraid of dying.

She circled the fire, returning to where he sat, before stuffing the pistol into its holster. As she drew closer to his back, the man took in a breath, as if readying himself. She crouched behind him, her right hand pulling out her knife as she held it to his throat. This was the part she disliked, threatening someone in a way they'd likely do to her. That part of her that wanted to be a good person, that looked up to people like Lee and Luke for doing so, struggled to allow her to do this, but the other half, the side that's seen what this world was capable of, knew better than to play with fire. Sometimes, you needed to resort to violence to prevent violence.

At least, that's what she told herself.

Despite the conflict inside her mind, there was no hesitation in her voice. "I don't want to kill you, but if you don't leave me a choice… I will."

No response, as expected.

She lowered the knife, putting it away before wrapping the rope around his hands tightly behind his back, tying it off in a knot. She stood up, moving in front of him before kneeling next to his injured leg.

She examined the wound carefully, forcing the bandit to extend his leg out despite his protests. Her eyes flicked towards him after a moment. "Well, good news is… the bullet went clean through. Missed your actual knee, too. You're lucky my friend isn't a good shot." She slipped her backpack off her shoulders, rummaging through it. "Should be easy to clean up."

For a moment, he seemed confused, eyebrows lifting and lowering as he opened his mouth, though spoke nothing. Clementine didn't bother herself with the reaction, instead working on cleaning the wound with a small bottle of rubbing alcohol and a relatively clean rag. He hissed with each dab, muttering curses under his breath as she worked. Finally, she wrapped a strip of cloth around the wound tightly, tying it into another tight knot. She lowered his jeans to cover the wound, though it was hard to hide it under the blood that soaked them.

Finally, she stood up, returning the supplies back to her backpack, throwing her next question over her shoulder as she did so. "So what's your name?"

Another dry chuckle, though it was weakened by the pain he'd endured. "Fuck off."

She rolled her eyes, sighing as she zipped the backpack up and slung it over her shoulders. "Don't be an asshole," she stated evenly, looking back towards him. "Gotta call you something. I'm Clementine. Now you."

Another sharp glare, though it eventually faded as his gaze fell to the bloody patch around his knee. Lips twisted into a frown, then evened out. "Jimmy," he finally replied, his voice quiet, as if the anger he had pent up in him was starting to fizzle out. Eventually, he'd be too tired to put up a fight anyway. He looked towards her again, eyes narrowing. " _Why_ are you helping me?"

She was pretty sure that's the first thing he'd said to her that didn't have a curse in it. She was making progress.

"I need you able to walk," she stated, circling the fire to retrieve Ellie's backpack. She wanted to believe that this guy wasn't as bad as he fronted, that being with a group like _that_ didn't mean you had to be the worst kind of asshole. Sometimes, good people had to do bad things to survive, even if it meant the people they survived with weren't good people themselves.

If she was wrong, she would be ready to ensure he didn't have a chance to make her regret it.

Jimmy shook his head, laughing sardonically. "I'm not taking you to 'em."

She didn't look back at him, instead searching through Ellie's backpack once more to find the map Ellie had found. She pulled it out, unfolding it. She turned back towards him, clutching the paper in her hand. "I'm not giving you a choice." She took a single step forward, holding the map in front of him, and pointing at the outposts drawn into it. "Now, which one are they taking her to?"

* * *

A dull ache stemmed from the back of Ellie's head, eliciting a groan from her as she struggled to move. Her eyes opened slowly, nothing but darkness filling her vision. Her cheek was smushed against some sort of carpet, and her legs were hugged to her chest, as if she was in a cramped space. Everything felt in motion and the low rumble of an engine reached her ears. With a jerk of her eyes, she could see the faint silhouette of trees passing them through a small rectangular window.

Another groan reached her ears, though this time it wasn't her own. Just within the edge of her vision, she could make out another face on the opposite side of the trunk, in a similar position to her own. _The girl._ Her eyes were open, wide-eyed like a trapped animal, and she didn't meet Ellie's gaze. Maybe she didn't even know that she was looking at her.

From somewhere behind her, gruff voices were talking amongst each other, quiet enough to be unintelligible. She tried to move, shift into a position where she could lift her head, but the feeling of plastic wrapped around her wrists provided her the reason why she couldn't. Grunting, she fought against them, pulling her arms away from each other, to no avail. She wasn't going to force her way out of this one. Her eyes focused on the girl again, who appeared to have noticed Ellie during her struggle.

"Guess I should've listened to you," Ellie spoke quietly, deadpan seeping into her tone.

The girl's eyes darted between Ellie and the back of the seat that separated them from the bandits. It was unclear if they could hear Ellie or not, but they said nothing to indicate it if they had. The girl didn't answer, though Ellie didn't blame her. Not much to say when all you're waiting for is execution.

"Where are they taking us?" She tried again, hoping that this time the girl had an answer for her.

Two seconds passed, her mouth opening and closing at least three times before she finally found her voice, quiet as it was. "Newport."

The name was familiar; that outpost they were going to sneak into to find anything they could about Joel and Luke. Which meant that these people were the same – _Of course. –_ assholes they've been tracking for weeks. She found herself unsurprised, though equally uneasy. This wasn't how she wanted this to go down. Out of her control.

"Are they going to kill us?" The next question was just as important as the first, though it elicited an entirely different reaction from the younger girl. He eyes widened further, hand twitching, as if fear was physically running through her veins. Ellie began to wonder if messing with these bandits had been the best idea, if they managed to instill such terror merely by their mention, or their intentions.

In the end, she didn't receive an answer, so Ellie tried a different tactic.

"They called you an apostate. You've got the scar. You were one of them, right?" The evidence was obviously stacked in favor of her being correct. She had no idea what 'apostate' was supposed to mean, but figured it was nothing good, at least for those on the receiving end of the title.

The young girl responded with a hesitant nod, eyes focusing on the trunk door, as to not have to look at Ellie. A boisterous laugh from the seats stopped their conversation short. Ellie narrowed her eyes, trying to see the top of the seat in front of her, though she was met only with darkness. One of the bandits was making a joke about his axe, his deep, baritone voice filling the small space of the van, and laughter immediately followed it. By the time it'd died down, the girl's gaze was back on Ellie. The faint glint of tear trails stained her cheeks.

"It was me, and my brother, and…" Her voice trailed off, though whatever she might've said next would've gotten drowned out by another cacophony of laughter anyway. "We just wanted to get away, a – and… those that leave get called 'apostates' and hunted."

"That's right, darlin'," came an amused reply from the other side of the seat. The voice was shrill and nasally, which was mimicked in the way that he laughed. Ellie could just about make out his large, crooked nose in the darkness. "Should'a thought about that b'fore leavin'."

The girl's demeanor changed in an instant, eyes narrowing with perceived anger, though she kept silent. Her hands trembled, and Ellie found herself admiring the girl's courage. Despite how terrified she obviously was, she was still trying to put on a brave face. More than most would do in their situation.

The bandit merely snorted, shaking his head. "Boss won't go easy on ya this time." He turned back towards his friends in the front, and for a moment, Ellie and the girl were forgotten.

She found herself wishing that the moment would last longer.

The van slowed down, the pitch-black scenery passing them slowly growing brighter as the inconsistent orange glow of fire slowly illuminated it. They came to a stop suddenly, and all voices inside the car were immediately silenced, whatever kind of break the bandits perceived themselves to be on ending with the metaphorical snap of a finger.

A gruff voice from outside the car filled the air, and another from inside replied to it. Ellie didn't bother listening in, instead focusing on figuring out what the fuck she was going to do here. _If_ there was anything she could do. Nevertheless, before any plan could be formulated, the van lurched forward, entering what she could only assume to be a compound. They stopped soon after.

The trunk door opened with a loud creak, and she squinted her eyes as the bright light of torches threatened to blind her temporarily. Crooked Nose was the face to greet her, his hand roughly latching onto her arm and yanking her into a sitting position before eventually pulling her out entirely. "Alright girls, get off yer asses."

The younger girl was next to be pulled out, while Ellie was handed off to a lanky bandit with red hair. She struggled against his grip, to no avail. Whatever fate awaited them, she didn't have the brute force to escape it.

She took in her surroundings with a quick turn of her head. The compound itself seemed unremarkable, based around what appeared to be an old hotel located near the water, where piers jutted out into the ocean. Most appeared to have broken down with time, sinking into the sand, alongside the boats that once moored there. Near the road they'd come down, a large sign hung stuck out next to two trees, the word _Embarcadero_ etched into a fancy form of calligraphy on a torn cloth that barely hung onto the sign. Beneath the name, she could barely see ' _our new permanent sign is under design_ ' written. She wanted to let out a dry laugh; seemed that the apocalypse prevented them from finishing the sign.

As Crooked Nose finished dragging the other girl out of the van, he shoved her next to Ellie, looking them over as if scrutinizing them. He glanced towards his red-haired friend before grunting. "Take her to see the boss. I'll put this one in a cage."

Redhead nodded once, jerking Ellie deeper into the parking lot making up the middle of the outpost. Ellie had managed to catch a glimpse of the other girl before she was hauled off in the opposite direction, already attempting to break free of Nose's tight grip. About a dozen bandits watched both of them with mild interest, sharpening their weapons and talking amongst themselves.

Eyes ahead, she found herself being led towards the hotel in the center of the compound. Its once red bricks were crumbling and covered in moss, becoming nearly indistinguishable from the brush surroundings it. As unremarkable as the building was, what surrounded it had been enough to knock the breath from her lungs.

Bodies hung from nooses tied to trees surrounding the hotel, eyes bloodshot and wide-eyed. Some appeared recent, while others were days old, maybe weeks. All bore the same vicious injury on their stomach, sliced open from left to right, and their intestines hung in the air, swinging with their bodies. For one sickening moment, her thoughts dwelled on that day back in Jackson, when her and Jesse had come across a similar display.

She was starting to assume that it wasn't going to be long before she'd find herself up there too, though she wouldn't have time to dwell on it as Redhead pushed her through the open door of the hotel, and to whatever fate awaited her.


End file.
